Path 2

Who’s Your Favorite ‘All That Chat’ Regular?

November 4, 2009

If you’re a true-blue theater queen with a home subscription to Playbill, you religiously read ATC, the wildly amusing message board on talkinbroadway.com, to learn about how Matthew Broderick flubbed a line or I offended someone on Theater Talk.

And you quickly notice that there are regular posters there–people who devote large chunks of their lives to writing tips, reviews, and opinions–just like I do, except I’m not anonymous and unpaid!

So who’s your favorite?

*jesse21. Writes long, involved reviews the day a show opens, thereby scooping all the critics. Lost points when he reviewed a Fringe Festival show about men having toilet sex and complained that there wasn’t enough eye candy, but it’s hard to dislike someone who also provides elaborate review roundups the day after the opening.

*hitbycab. Seems sensible enough, with a healthy streak of humor. At least I think he/she was joking when he/she wrote of the threatened Cocktail: The Musical, “As long as ‘Kokomo’ is in the score, I’m there.”

*AlanScott. If you prick him, he’ll bleed theater. Saw It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s Superman when he was eight. Praised the open orchestra pit of the Kansas City Sondheim festival. And when someone started attacking jessie21’s writing, he agreed that most people need to get laid more.

*seeseveryshow. Creamed over Ragtime and shrewdly dubbed The Vibrator Play “electrifying.” Clearly this person sees every show first.

*Bruce Memblatt. Feels “No revival of Mame should ever be cast ever.” That’s too many “ever”s, but give him points for using his real name. (Though for all I know, AlanScott does too.)